The multi-award-winning actor Olympia Dukakis will speak about "An Actor's Life" at Fairfield University on Sunday, Jan. 25 at 3:00 p.m. Her appearance is a Community Partnership venture between the Westport Country Playhouse and Open VISIONS Forum. OVF director Philip Eliasoph moderates the discussion and will be joined by Professor Martha LoMonaco of Visual and Performing Arts. Jodi Schoenbrun Carter, managing director of the Playhouse, will introduce Dukakis. Tickets are $45.

Dukakis is well known for her extensive film and television work and particularly for her Oscar Award and Golden Globe Award-winning performance as the matriarch, Rose Castorini, of the unforgettable Italian family in "Moonstruck." She is equally at home onstage and will open in April 2009 at New York's Public Theatre in Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winner Craig Lucas' new play, "The Singing Forest." Immediately following her appearance at Fairfield University, she will perform the lead, Prospera, in two staged readings of "Another Side of the Island," a script she co-adapted from Shakespeare's "The Tempest" at the Orlando Shakespeare Festival. In addition to her acting work, Dukakis will share her expertise as a teacher of acting at Columbia University's graduate acting program later in 2009.

Dukakis has been married to actor Louis Zorich since 1962 and their acting schedules dovetail this year, as Zorich opens Jan. 17 in "Uncle Vanya" with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard at the Classic Stage Company in New York, concluding his run as Dukakis opens at the Public Theatre.

Dukakis was born in Lowell, Mass., the daughter of Greek immigrant parents and was educated at Boston University where she earned undergraduate as well as Masters in Fine Arts degrees in the University's School of the Performing Arts. Tickets are available online at www.fairfield.edu/openvisions or by calling the Quick Center Box Office at (203) 254-4010. The toll free number is 1-877-ARTS-396.

Posted On: 01-13-2009 10:01 AM

Volume: 41 Number: 182